June Jones, ex-Ticats coach, dies at 73

June Jones, a pioneer of the run-and-shoot offence who coached the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2017 and 2018, has died at age 73, TSN and ESPN reported Thursday.

ESPN reported that the University of Hawai’i confirmed the death. TSN reported that friends of Jones told KHON, a Honolulu television station, that he had been in hospice care. No other details were immediately available.

Jones, a native of Portland, Ore., was a quarterback at Portland State in the 1970s, where offensive co-ordinator Mouse Davis introduced him to the run-and-shoot, a pass-heavy system in which receivers adjust their routes based on the coverage they see. He played in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and spent one season with the Toronto Argonauts in 1982, TSN reported.

He built his coaching career around the scheme. He was a quarterback coach with the Houston Oilers in 1987, then an offensive co-ordinator in Atlanta before becoming the Falcons’ head coach for the 1994 season. TSN reported that he went 19-29 over three seasons there, including a 9-7 year in 1995 that ended with a first-round playoff loss to Green Bay. He was fired after a 3-13 campaign in 1996. He later served as interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers for the final 10 games of a season after Kevin Gilbride was fired, ESPN reported.

Jones’s best-known work came at Hawai’i, where he was head coach from 1999 to 2007. ESPN reported that he finished 76-41, making him the school’s winningest coach, and won Western Athletic Conference titles in 1999 and 2007. TSN reported that his 2007 team, led by quarterback Colt Brennan, went 12-1 and earned the program’s first Bowl Championship Series berth, losing the Sugar Bowl to Georgia. He then moved to Southern Methodist University, where, according to ESPN, he led the Mustangs to four straight bowl games, the program’s first since the NCAA’s so-called death penalty in 1987. TSN reported that he stepped down two games into the 2014 season, citing personal issues, with a 36-43 record at SMU.

Jones joined the Tiger-Cats in 2017 as offensive co-ordinator under Kent Austin. After an 0-8 start, Austin stepped down to focus on the front office and Jones took over as interim head coach, finishing 6-4, TSN reported. His time in Hamilton drew criticism that year when he tried to hire former Baylor coach Art Briles as an assistant. Briles had been fired by Baylor in 2016 after an investigation into alleged sexual assaults by players. After public outcry, Briles did not join the staff, TSN reported.

Jones was named permanent head coach for 2018, and Hamilton went 8-10, finished second in the East Division and beat the B.C. Lions in the crossover semifinal before losing the East Final to the Ottawa Redblacks, according to TSN. Ahead of the 2019 season he agreed to step aside so the club could hire Orlondo Steinauer, a member of the 1999 Grey Cup-winning team, as head coach. TSN reported that Jones changed his mind weeks before the season and resigned. A week after leaving Hamilton he was introduced as head coach and general manager of the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks, who started 5-0 before the 2020 season was abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic, TSN reported.

The Tiger-Cats said in a statement, as quoted by TSN, that Jones’s belief in his players and commitment to helping them succeed left a lasting impression on those who worked alongside him.

The run-and-shoot has long since spread across football, and TSN and ESPN both credited Jones with helping popularize it. Canadian fans can follow the league’s final stretch in our Grey Cup 2026 guide, and the Ticats’ recent season in our reports on quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell’s ankle surgery and a loss to the Roughriders.

File photo: Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, home of the Tiger-Cats, before the 2021 Grey Cup game. (Reuters)

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Via TSN and ESPN: TSN, ESPN.